Karnataka HC says govt can take action as per law against aggregators offering bike taxi services

BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Friday orally told the Advocate General (AG) that authorities can take any action as per law against aggregators offering bike taxi services on their platform. The court's words came after the AG's complaint that the aggregators are offering bike taxi services, although the court did not give such liberty. The court also told the AG K Shashikiran Shetty that they should not harass individual bike taxi owners or drivers. A division bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C M Joshi orally clarified it when the AG complained that aggregators like Uber, Ola and Rapido have started offering bike taxis on their platforms even though the court had not given any such liberty to them while hearing the matter on August 20. Clarifying that it had asked the AG on August 20 to instruct the authorities not to take any precipitative action against individual bike taxi owners or drivers for operating their vehicles, the court orally told the AG that they can take any action as per law against the aggregators. Meanwhile, the counsel for the Bike Taxi Welfare Association pointed out that the authorities of the transport department were seizing individual bike taxis and taking action against the drivers of those taxis despite clear instructions from the court that no coercive action should be taken against them. The court told the AG that it can pass an order in writing to ensure that individual bike taxi owner-drivers are not harassed by the authorities. In reply, AG told the court that he would instruct the authorities appropriately. The court was hearing appeals filed by the Bike Taxis Welfare Association along with Ola, Uber and Rapido and owners of the two wheelers against the order passed by a single bench judge on April 2, that the aggregators cannot offer bike taxis on their platform unless the state government notifies the guidelines. The Advocate General, on August 20, submitted before the court that a serious thought would be given to the issues raised in the present matter at the government level. In this view, the court deferred the matter to September 22 and asked the Advocate General to instruct the authorities not to take any precipitative action against individual bike taxi owners or drivers for operating their vehicles.